Lithium-ion batteries, especially multiple-cell lithium-ion batteries, are widely used in various electric vehicles, hybrid engine vehicles and electric bicycles due to high energy density, high specific energy, long cycle life and flexible and lightweight design.
Generally, a conventional multiple-cell lithium-ion battery includes a battery case and a number of cells housed in the battery case. Each of the cells includes a positive electrode having a positive lead and a negative electrode having a negative lead. The positive leads and/or negative leads are connected in series and/or in parallel to meet different requirements of voltage and energy. Typically, the positive leads and/or negative leads of the cells are connected with each other in series and/or in parallel via soldering. However, the soldering procedure is not only difficult to be carried out but can inevitably adversely affect the performance of the cells due to exposure to the high temperature in soldering process.
To overcome the foregoing disadvantage, Chinese Patent Application No. CN 200620001192.9 (which is incorporated by reference in the present patent application in its entirety) provides a new design for connecting the positive and/or negative leads of the cells, in which, the positive and/or negative leads of the cells are securely coupled to an electrically insulating mounting board disposed in the battery case. Series and/or parallel connection is established on the mounting board. Certainly, there is no need to carry out the soldering procedure in accordance with the design of CN 200620001192.9. However, the structure of the multiple-cell battery is considerably complicated and assembly of the cells is difficult to be carried out.
What is needed, therefore, is to provide a new multi-cell battery which can be readily assembled.